Tomato sells at Rs 200 per kilo in Kashmir; traders expect relief next week

Srinagar: Amid soaring tomato prices, Kashmir is expecting relief next week as local produce has started arriving in the wholesale markets.

Like other regions, Kashmir too is grappling with a severe shortage of tomatoes, leading to a 400 percent price in the market.

In June, wholesale prices of tomatoes stood at Rs 30 per kilogram at the Parimpora Vegetable Market. By the first week of July, the price rose to over Rs 100 per kilogram. The retail price has now soared to nearly Rs 200 per kilogram due to the fall in supply from various regions of the country.

President Parimpora Fruit Mandi, Bashir Ahmad Basheer told The Kashmir Monitor that the valley will see relief from the tomato crisis within a week.

“Local produce has started hitting the market. Currently, we received half a truck of locally grown tomatoes at Parimpora Vegetable Mandi. In the coming week, more than six trucks of tomatoes will arrive at Mandi,” he said.

The tomato crisis, which started more than two weeks before, was primarily caused by unfavorable weather conditions in entire India particularly in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu, which account for 91 percent of the total production in India. As a result, the supply of tomatoes from other parts of India was severely impacted, leading to a sharp decline in availability in the local market.

Bashir said that in the current season, Himachal Pradesh has been the main supplier of tomatoes to the valley. “However, the entire state is hit by rains and floods. The crop has been damaged there, which has caused a shortage of tomatoes in the valley as well. We would receive almost 6-10 trucks of tomatoes from Himachal during the current month normally,” he said.

 Local vendors and shopkeepers hope for a significant drop in prices and increased availability in the coming days.

“No dealer is readying to buy tomatoes at exorbitant rates due to which this vegetable is not available in the market. We hope the problem will get addressed in a couple of weeks as local produce hit the market.  Consumers, who have been struggling with exorbitant tomato prices, are eagerly awaiting the local produce to hit the markets,” said Adbul Mukeem, a vegetable seller from Srinagar.